The economics of a brilliant career

Andrew Charlton at just 28 was advising then prime minister Kevin Rudd how to deal with the GFC. A year earlier, he had been teaching at the London School of Economics on Keynesian principles; in 2008, he was practising what he preached. Now he’s selling alcohol, having left the plush carpets of the executive wing of Parliament House for the hard floors of “Battlestar Galactica", the Coles headquarters. Instead of keeping Australia afloat he’s keeping it well-lubricated with its favourite tipples and at a price that beats the competition over at Woolworths.